2. Introduction to Sales Personnel
Importance of personal sales:
Direct link to the customer
Most customers see the sales person as the
company
Designing the sales force internationally is one of
the most important functions of the marketing
department
“A salesman is someone who sells
goods that won’t come back to
customers who will.” (Anonymous)
3. Step 1. Prospecting and QualifyingStep 1. Prospecting and Qualifying
Step 2. PreapproachStep 2. Preapproach
Step 3. ApproachStep 3. Approach
Step 4. Presentation/ DemonstrationStep 4. Presentation/ Demonstration
Identifying and Screening For
Qualified Potential Customers.
Learning As Much As Possible
About a Prospective Customer
Before Making a Sales Call.
Knowing How to Meet the
Buyer to Get the Relationship
Off to a Good Start.
Telling the Product “Story” to
the Buyer, and Showing the
Product Benefits.
Steps in the Selling ProcessSteps in the Selling Process
4. Step 5. Handling ObjectionsStep 5. Handling Objections
Step 6. ClosingStep 6. Closing
Step 7. Follow-UpStep 7. Follow-Up
Seeking Out, Clarifying, and
Overcoming Customer
Objections to Buying.
Asking the Customer for the
Order.
Following Up After the Sale to
Ensure Customer Satisfaction
and Repeat Business.
Steps in the Selling ProcessSteps in the Selling Process
5. Factors Affecting the Importance of Personal Selling in
the Promotional Mix
Variable Conditions That Favor
Personal Selling
Conditions That Favor
Advertising
Consumer
Product
Geographically
concentrated
Relatively low numbers
Expensive
Technically complex
Custom made
Special handling
requirements
Transactions frequently
involve trade-ins
Geographically dispersed
Relatively high numbers
Inexpensive
Simple to understand
Standardized
No special handling
requirements
Transactions seldom
involve trade-ins
Price Relatively high Relatively low
Channels Relatively short Relatively long
6. The Evolution of Personal Selling
Today’s salesperson is usually a highly-trained
professional
Sales professionals take a customer-oriented
approach employing truthful, nonmanipulative
tactics in order to satisfy the long-term needs of
both the customer and the selling firm
Today’s professional salespeople are problem
solvers who seek to develop long-term relationships
with customers
7. Four Sales Channels
Over-the-counter selling: personal
selling conducted in retail and some
wholesale locations in which customers
come to the seller’ place of business
Field selling: sales presentations made
at prospective customers’ homes or
businesses on a face-to-face basis
8. Four Sales Channels
Telemarketing: promotional presentation
involving the use of the telephone on an
outbound basis by salespeople or on an inbound
basis by customers who initiate calls to obtain
information and place orders
Inside selling: performing the functions of field
selling but avoiding travel-related expenses by
relying on phone, mail, and electronic commerce
to provide sales and product service for
customers on a continuing basis
9. I. Designing & Recruiting Sales Personnel
3 Ways to Design Sales Force
1. Expatriates
2. Local Nationals
3. Third Country Nationals
Advantages/Disadvantages of all 3:
1. Expatriates (declining)
• Advantages
– Used most when products are highly technical or
requires a lot of information in order to sell
– Familiar with headquarters policies, procedures
– Opinions/Ideas are valued more by home office
10. I. Designing & Recruiting Sales Personnel
Disadvantages
– High cost
– Cultural and legal barriers
– Difficult to recruit – many highly skilled will not
re-locate overseas
Other type of Expatriates
– Virtual Expatriates
– Created by the internet and other advanced
types of communications, where they
manage operations in other countries, but do
not move to that country.
11. I. Designing & Recruiting Sales Personnel
2. Local Nationals
Advantages
– Most knowledgeable about culture, legal
environments, business structure, distribution
networks
Disadvantages
– Home office does not see as the “experts” in the field
– Seen as not being familiar with home office procedures,
policies
– Not the experts on the products
– Difficult to recruit most skilled and knowledgeable
– Recruiting the best may mean taking away from another
company or competitor – this goes against some cultural
believes where “loyalty” is important
– Crossing Borders 17.3 pg. 521 -“Avon calling – or not?”
12. I. Designing & Recruiting Sales Personnel
3. Third-Country Nationals
Advantages
• If recruited within same area most are familiar with
culture, language, how to conduct business
Disadvantages
• Host country does not see individual as one of their
own
• Many of the same disadvantages to a smaller scale
with the expatriate.
13. Selecting Sales and Marketing Personnel
• To select personnel for international marketing positions
effectively, management must choose individuals who have the
following traits:
• To select personnel for international marketing positions
effectively, management must choose individuals who have the
following traits:
1. Maturity1. Maturity
2. Emotional Stability2. Emotional Stability
3. Breadth of Knowledge3. Breadth of Knowledge
4. Flexibility4. Flexibility
5. Cultural Empathy5. Cultural Empathy
6. Energetic and6. Energetic and
7. Enjoy Travel7. Enjoy Travel
14. III. Training Sales Personnel
Types and method of training differs depending
upon type of sales structure
1. Expatriates
• Focus is on culture, customs, special foreign issues (not on
products, selling methods, home office policies..)
2. Local Nationals/Third-County Nationals
• Focus on product knowledge
• More continual training
• Methods of training need to be adapted to recipients’ way of
learning
Internet is facilitating faster and more efficient learning for
all types of sales structures
15. IV. Motivating Sales Personnel
What motivates people varies from culture to culture
Though some similarities exist in certain cultures, many
cultures vary in a number of areas (individual bonuses vs.
group bonuses; compensation vs. personal growth, etc)
Designing Compensation Systems
Expatriates
• Things to consider
– Countries with high taxes, prefer larger expense accounts, fringe
benefits (things that are non-taxable)
– Where the company is multi-national, sales personnel will compare
compensation plans from home country to re-assigned country
17. IV. Motivating Sales Personnel
2. Global Sales Force
• Allows for most flexibility in creating compensation
plans
• See “do’s and don’ts of global compensation”
– pg. 532
18. Important Points in Recruiting
Sales Personnel & Managers
Important characteristics/skills to look
for when recruiting:
Cross-cultural skills
• More important in most cases than technical
skills
Language skills
• Many believe that the more fluent in languages,
the more culturally sensitive
– Crossing Borders 17.6 pg. 525
20. Relationship Marketing
Process of creating, maintaining, and
enhancing strong, value-laden
relationships with customers and other
stakeholders.
Based on the idea that important
accounts need focused and
continuous attention.
22. Selling is considered as an art by some and a science by others.
This has produced two contrasting approaches to the theory of
selling.
23. Four Theories of Selling
AIDAS
“Right set of circumstances”
“Buying Formula”
“Behavioral Equation”
24. • AIDAS and “Right Set Of Circumstances” are seller
oriented theories.
• “Buying Formula” theory of selling is Buyer
oriented.
• The “Behavioral Equation” theory emphasizes the
buyer ’s decision process but also takes the
salesperson’s influence process into account.
26. AIDAS theory of selling
• A-Securing attention.
• I-Gaining Interest.
• D-Kindling desire.
• A-Inducing Action.
• S-Building Satisfaction.
27. • In order to put the prospect into a receptive state of
mind, the first few minutes of the interview are
crucial.
28. Gaining Interest:
• Some sales people develop contagious enthusiasm
for the product or a sample.
29. • Obstacles must be faced and
ways found to get around
them. Objections need answering
to the prospects satisfaction.
• Time is saved, and the chance of
making a sale improved
if objections are anticipated and
answered before the prospects
raises them
30. • Experienced sales personnel do not close until the
prospect is fully convinced of the merits of the
proposition.
31. Building Satisfaction:
• The sales person should reassure the customer that
his buying decision is correct and that sales person
merely helped in deciding.
32. “Right Set of Circumstances” Theory Of Selling
• Summed up as “Everything Was Right for The Sale.”
• Situation Response Theory
• This Theory holds that the particular circumstances
prevailing in a given selling situation cause the prospect in a
predictable way.
• The more skilled the salesperson is in handling the set of
circumstances, the more predictable is the response.
33. “Right Set of Circumstances” Theory Of Selling
• The set of circumstances includes factors external & interna
the prospect.
• The salesperson and the remark are external factors.
• Proponents of these theory tends to stress external factors and
the expense of internal factors.
• This is a seller oriented theory: it stresses the importance of the
salesperson controlling the situation.
34. • The name ‘’buying formula’’ has been given by E.K.
Strong.
• It emphasizes the buyer ’s side of the buyer-seller
dyad.
35. Reduced to its simplest form, the mental processes involved
in a purchase are
Need(or
Solution Purchase
problem)
36. After adding the fourth element, it becomes
Need Solution Purchase Satisfaction
37. After modification in the solution and satisfaction, the
buying formula becomes
Satisfaction/Diss
atisfaction
Product/Service
and trade name
Need Purchase
38. After adding adequacy and pleasant feelings, it
becomes
Pleasant feelings
Product/Service
and trade name
Satisfaction/Diss
atisfaction
Need Purchase
Adequacy
39. • if sales to new prospects are desired, every element
in the formula should be presented.
• developing new uses is comparable to selling to
new prospects.
40.
41. • Developed using stimuli-response model.
• Sophisticated and advanced version of the “Right set of
circumstances” theory.
42. Requires 4 essential elements-
1: Drive-A strong internal stimulus.
2: Cues-Weak stimuli when the buyers respond.
o Triggering
o Non-Triggering (specific product-eg. special discounts)
43. 3: Response- What does the buyer do?
4: Reinforcement- Event that strengthens the buyer ’s
response tendency.
45. • When a product ’s potential satisfaction to the
buyer (K) yields rewards, reinforcement occurs.
• When P is positive, K is automatically active.
• When P and K are positive, customers are more
loyal to the product.
47. • The job of the sales executive is more action oriented and
less planning oriented.
• Planning of sales executives cover short period and
concern near term personal selling objectives and hoe to
attain them.
• The main concern of marketing management is the
“future” and the main concern of sales management is
the “present” – the “here and now ”.
• Sales management ’s plan typically are near to the action
point.
• Sales executives require a base of experiential and other
knowledge, much of which may not be very explicit; this
base provide a “feel” for problems and possible solutions.
• They need keen awareness of company and sales
department goals.
48. Sales executives in performing their jobs must know how to:
• Analyze information,
• Combine its significance with their own experiential
knowledge and judgment,
• Apply imagination in searching for alternative solutions to
problems,
• Predict the likely outcomes of different alternatives,
• Choose that alternative with the highest payoff.
49. • Position Guide – Sales Manager
• Position Guide – District Sales Manager
50. • Reporting relationship: The sales manager reports to the
vice-president of marketing.
• Job objective: The primary objective is to secure
maximum volume of rupee sales through the effective
development and execution of sales programs and sales
policies for all products sold by the division.
• Duties and responsibilities:
1. Sales program.
2. Organization.
3. Sales force management.
4. Internal and external relations.
5. Communications.
6. Control.
51. • The department ’s rupee and unit sales are equal to or
exceed the quantities budgeted.
• The profit contribution of the sales department is in line
with plan.
• The details of sales plans are in writing and are
acceptable to marketing management.
• The turnover rate of sales personnel is maintained at a
level regarded as satisfactory by marketing
management.
52. • Reporting relationship: The district sales manager
reports to the sales manager.
• Job objective: The primary objective is to secure
maximum rupee sales of the company ’s products in the
sales district in accordance with established sales
policies and sales programs, within the limits of the sales
budget.
• Duties and responsibilities:
1. Supervision of sales personnel.
2. Control.
3. Administration.
4. Communication.
53. • The district ’s rupee and unit sales equal to or exceed the
quantities budgeted.
• The district ’s total expenses are no higher than the
amounts budgeted.
• The profit contribution of the district office and
warehouse and stock facilities is in line with plan.
• The turnover rate of district sales personnel is
maintained at a level regarded as satisfactory by the
sales manager.
55. • Ability to define the position’s exact functions and
duties in relation to the goals the company should
expect to attain.
• Ability to select and train capable subordinates and
willingness to delegate sufficient authority to enable
them to carry out assigned task with minimum
supervision.
• Ability to utilize time efficiently.
• Ability to allocate sufficient time for thinking and
planning.
• Ability to exercise skilled leadership.
56. • Realizing the sales executive’s potential, however,
depends largely upon relationship with top
management.
• Effective sales executives keep top management
informed on important decisions and the department ’s
plan and accomplishment.
• They transmit all ordinary reports promptly, and special
reports when appropriate.
• Their reports ensure that top management knows in
broad outline the problems encountered in selling the
company ’s products, the way they are handled, and the
results accomplished.
57. Relation with managers of other marketing activities
• Relation with product management.
• Relation with promotion management.
• Relation with pricing management.
• Relation with distribution management.
58. • Straight Salary.
• Straight Commission.
• Salary plus Bonus.
• Salary plus Commission.
• Salary plus commission plus bonus.
• Commission plus Bonus.
• Customer satisfaction and sales force compensation.
• Team selling plan.
• Profit based commission.
